As scores of vendors, food manufacturers and other service providers eager to do business with restaurateurs converged for the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, the industry is bracing itself for another sluggish year.
Restaurant industry sales are expected to grow 2.6 percent in 2011, according to Technomic, a Chicago-based consulting firm. While that's an improvement over 2010, when sales ticked up 0.5 percent, any gains will be wiped out by rising inflation and higher food costs.
"It's an improving picture, but it's a long ways away from where we used to be," Ron Paul, president of Technomic, said during a presentation at the group's Growth Chain Conference last week, intended as a preview for the four-day restaurant show that ends Tuesday. "It's going to take us a while to get back."
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